Nasser Al-Attiyah and co-driver Lucas Cruz have won stage 6 of the 2013 Dakar in their Toyo Tires equipped Qatar/Red Bull buggy. Al-Attiyah completed the day’s 438km special through Chile in 3 hours, 32 minutes and 8 seconds.
Starting from 9th position, Al-Attiyah stormed through to win the mammoth stage by a massive 8 minutes and 36 seconds from Stephan Peterhansel. It could not be closer at the top now. With a 1 minute, 18 second gap overall, Al-Attiyah is right behind the X-Raid Mini of last year’s winner.
With three stage wins from the first six stages, the Qatar driver, in his newly developed buggy, has been the sensation of the 2013 Dakar. The Qatar/Red Bull buggy only began development following Al-Attiyah’s victory in the Qatar Baja in April last year. When Al-Attiyah started designing his own buggy, he set himself a goal of three years to win the Dakar. No one could have predicted that with so little development time, the talented driver could be humbling established teams with his new car’s speed in its first competitive outing.
Following Al-Attiyah’s stage winning success on Toyo Tires in the 2012 Dakar, the Qatar/Red Bull buggy is equipped with 37x13.5R17 Open Country MT/R tyres.
Al-Attiyah has two more stages before the break. He will be pushing hard in those stages to start the second half of the 2013 Dakar from the front.
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